Telescopic gunsight mount



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TELESCOPIC GUNSIGHT MOUNT Filed Dec. 30. 1966 90k '2 F3 44 a 46 -32; L :l am

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United States Patent 3,381,924 TELESCOPIC GUNSIGHT MOUNT Walter J. Gagnier, Oroville, Calif. (1716 Arbutus Ave., Chico, Calif. 95926) Filed Dec. 30, 1966, Ser. No. 606,073 4 Claims. (Cl. 248-205) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A mount for gunsight telescopes having front and rear mounting plates with a pair of upright posts each having upper and lower grooves mounted thereon, front and rear telescope mounting collars slidably received on the upright posts, the telescope mounting collars having bosses on the bottom thereon to reduce the effect of foreign matter accumulation, and resiliently biased balls received in bores in the telescope mounting collars for locking the collars in raised and lowered positions is disclosed.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION This constitutes an improvement over my prior Patent No. 3,134,174, issued May 26, 1964.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field 09' the invention This invention relates to gunsights and in particular to telescopic firearm sights and more particularly to mountings for telescopic firearm sights.

Description of the prior art A large variety of telescopic sight mountings are known in the prior art, but in general, they suffer from two disadvantages. One category of such sights is so complicated that the slightest movement or rough handling adversely affects the accuracy of the sighting of the telescope mounted thereby. Another category of gunsight mounts known in the prior art secures the telescopic sight in a fixed position relative to the gun barrel. Such mounting is generally very stable and quite accurate but it does not permit the firearm to be used with conventional sights. Attempts have been made to design a telescopic gunsight mounting with adequate versatility coupled with suflicient strength and rigidity to maintain accuracy, but generally speaking such attempts have not met with success. It is to this problem that the present invention is addressed.

SUMMARY The present invention is directed to a simplified design for mounting telescopic gunsights on firearms, such as hunting rifles and the like. The present invention comprises, briefly, front and rear mounting plates for securing the gunsight mount to the barrel of the rifle, each of the mounting plates having a pair of upright posts, each post having upper and lower grooves therein. Front and rear telescope mounting collars are slidably received on the posts and are provided with biased ball locking means for selectively locking the telescope mounting collars in a raised or in a lowered position as desired. One or both of the posts on the front and on the rear mounting plates may be provided with a retaining cap portion.

The important features of novelty in the present invention reside in: (1) the novel simplified means for locking the respective collars in raised and lowered positions; (2) novel means for retaining the telescopic mounting collars slidably received on the upright posts; and (3) the novel arrangement of bosses on the bottom of the telescope mounting collars for substantially eliminating the adverse effect of accumulated foreign matter on the telescopic sight mount.

3,381,924 Patented May 7, 1968 FIGURE 1 is a side elevational view of the telescopic sight mount of this invention shown in a raised position.

FIGURE 2 is a side elevational view of the telescopic sight mount shown in lowered position.

FIGURE 3 is a top plan view, taken substantially along lines 3-3 of FIGURE 1.

FIGURE 4 is an end view in partial cross-section of the front telescope mounting collar and mounting plate taken substantially along lines 44 in the direction of the arrows of FIGURE 1.

FIGURE 5 is a front elevational view in cross-section of the front telescope mounting collar member taken substantially along lines 5-5 in the direction of the arrows.

FIGURE 6 is a side elevational view in cross-section showing the interior construction of the front telescope mounting collar taken substantially along lines 6-6 in the direction of the arrows as shown in FIGURE 5.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring first to FIGURE 1, telescope mount 10 comprises front and rear mounting plates 12 and 14 which are connected by an elongate member 16. As shown in FIG- URE 3, the front mounting plate 12 is milled out on the lower edge at 18 to permit convenient mounting on the barrel of the rifle. The front plate may be secured to the barrel by screws extending through holes 20 and 22 or by any conventional means. Similarly, the rear mounting plate 14 is milled out at 24 to permit the mounting plate to be easily secured by screws extending through holes 26 and 28 to the barrel or stock of the rifle to which the gunsight is to be mounted. In a similar manner, the elongate connecting member 16 is milled out to fit snugly against the barrel of the rifle. The machining of gunsight mounts to accommodate barrel sizes and shapes is conventional and well known in the art.

The front mounting plate is provided with first and second upright posts 32 and 34 and the rear mounting plate is provided with first and second upright posts 36 and 38, as best shown in FIGURE 3.

Referring now to FIGURES 5 and 6, upright post 38, which is press-fitted in mounting plate 14 is provided with lower groove 40 and an upper groove 42 which correspond to raised and lowered positions of the telescope as will be described hereinafter.

One highly important feature of the present invention is the provision of an enlarged cap portion 44 which is removably secured to the top 46 of upright post 38 and is received in an upper portion 48 of a first diameter in telescope mounting collar 50. The lower bore portion of smaller diameter 52 intersects at shoulder 54 which engages enlarged cap portion 44 on post 38 to prevent removal of collar 50 from the posts.

In a similar manner, upright post 36 is provided with a lower groove 56 and an upper groove 58 but, as shown at 60, the top portion of upright post 36 is the same diameter as the bottom portion since, in the preferred embodiment, only one enlarged cap portion is necessary to retain the collar 50 in its slidably received position on upright posts 36 and 38. Thus, upright post 36 with its head portion 60 is slidably received in a bore 62 of uniform diameter.

Collar 50 comprises upper and lower members 64 and 66 secured together by a frictional fastener such as bolt 68 and, as best shown in FIGURES 4 and 5, form a passage for receiving and securing a gunsight telescope.

Another highly important feature of the present invention is shown in FIGURE 6. A bore 70' of a first diameter extends from one side of collar 50 to a point proximate the bore 62 and a smaller bore extends from the first diameter bore 70 to the post receiving bore 62. By using a pointed drill and by stopping just short of complete intersection with bore 6 2, a retaining lip shown at 72 and 74 remains at the intersection of bore 70 and bore 62. A ball 76 is loosely received in bore 70, said ball being of a diameter less than the smaller diameter which communicates between bore 70 and bore 62. Thus, as shown in FIGURE 6, the ball protrudes into bore 62 and engages post 36 to lock collar 50 in the raised or in the lowered position, the latter being shown in FIGURE 6, but the ball 76 may not pass into bore 62. Ball 76 is biased by a spring 78, which is received in bore 70 and maintained there by a press-fitted closure cover 80.

In a preferred embodiment a vertical groove 82 may be provided in the upright post, for example post 36, to permit the ball to ride freely from the lower groove to the upper groove.

An additional important feature of the present invention is the provision of bosses 84 and 86, best shown in FIGURE 5, which engage the mounting plate when the collar is in its lower position. A space, shown at 88 in FIGURE 6, remains between the collar and the mounting plate in all areas except where bosses 84 and 86 engage the mounting plate. Thus, a small accumulation of foreign matter on the mounting plate or on the bottom of the collar has a negligible effect upon the positioning of the collar vertically relative to the mounting plate.

OPERATION In use, a telescope, shown generally at 100 is mounted in the front and rear collar members and the mount is secured to a gun barrel in a conventional manner such as has been described. In the lower position, as shown in FIGURE 2, the firearm is sighted through the telescopic sight. If it is desired to use conventional open or peep sights, the telescope is grasped and move upwardly to a position shown in FIGURE 1, permitting sight to be taken along the top of the gun barrel in a conventional manner. If it is desired to remove the telescope entirely, the enlarged top portion 44 of upright post 38 is removed and the collar is slipped free from the upright post.

While the present invention has been described with respect to the front telescope mounting collar, it will be realized that the rear telescope mounting collar 90 may be constructed in the same manner.

1 claim:

1. A telescope gunsight mount comprising:

from and rear mounting plates for mounting the sight on a gun;

first and second upright posts on the front and rear mounting plates;

front and rear telescope mounting collar members, each of said collar members having first and second bores slidably receiving the respective first and second posts for permitting vertical movement of the collar member thereon;

means in said collar members for selectively locking the collar member in a raised position and in a lowered position; and

a pair of bosses on the bottom of each of the collar members for engaging the mounting plates in the lowered position of the respective collar member;

whereby the vertical position of the respective collar members relative to the mounting plates is substantially uneffected by the accumulation of foreign matter on the mounting plate.

2. The invention of claim 1 wherein:

at least one upright post on the front and the rear mounting plates has upper and lower grooves therein;

the collar members each have at least one bore of a first diameter extending from a side of the respective collar member to a point proximate a post receiving bore and a bore of a smaller second diameter extending from the first diameter bore into the post receiving bore; and

the means for selectively locking the collar members comprises,

a ball having a diameter greater than said smaller second diameter loosely received in the first diameter bore,

bias means in the first diameter bore urging the ball toward the post receiving bore, and

a press fitted closure cap closing the outer end of the first diameter bore and retaining the ball and the bias means in said bore.

3. The invention of claim 1 wherein:

at least one of the post receiving bore has an upper diameter and a relatively smaller lower diameter, said upper and smaller lower diameters intersecting to form a shoulder in said bore; and

the post received in said post receiving bore comprises,

a removable cap portion of a first diameter, and

a relatively smaller diameter lower portion;

whereby said removable cap engages said shoulder to prevent removal of the collar member from the 'posts.

4. The invention of claim 3 wherein:

at least one upright post on the front and the rear mounting plates has upper and lower grooves therein;

the collar members each have at least one bore of a first diameter extending from a side of the respective collar member to a point proximate a post receiving bore and a bore of a smaller second diameter extending from the first diameter bore into the post receiving bore; and

the means for selectively locking the collar members comprises,

a ball having a diameter greater than said smaller second diameter loosely received in the first diameter bore,

bias means in the first diameter bore urging the ball toward the post receiving bore, and

a press fitted closure cap closing the outer end of the tfirst diameter bore and retaining the ball and the bias means in said bore.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,237,395 4/1941 Sweet 33----50 2,526,126 10/1950 Gagnier 33-50 2,783,539 3/1957 Dahlberg 33-56 JOHN PETO, Primary Examiner. 

